I have been working in services for as long as I can remember. I have freelanced, worked at services companies (like Deloitte and VASS) and now I've been running MarsBased since 2014.

To be honest, I never quite wondered why I enjoy services so much. Part of it, it's because I don't have the ego of thinking that my brilliant idea can change the world, or a sector, or improve the lives of millons through a massive B2C effort. Part of it is being neurodivergent and enjoying novelty on a frequent basis: new projects, new people, new sectors, new challengers, new technologies, etc.

Another thing I have never stopped to think about is why do our clients keep coming back because I have always focused on doing the fucking job. No excuses. I have never come to hate services - like most people do - because I've mostly had great experiences in services.

However, when I talk to other companies, they're always amazed by our almost-nonexistant employee attrition (only 4 people in 11 years) and the fact that our clients never churn unless they go out of business. There must be something in the water.

People ask me all the time about how do we do it and I've sort of hard to make up an answer because I have never needed to think about it. I have never needed the answer because I have never not been a very good provider to these clients.

I know it sounds like an egotistical overstatement, but let's rewind a bit. There are two anecdotes that might help to explain this.

Bad weather won't stop us

This week, we're celebrating ten uninterrupted years with one of our oldest clients, Naiz. Ten. Fucking. Years.

Last June, we were going to visit them in San Sebastian for a day and a half of working together & discussing the future. When we were about to land, the plane started regaining altitude, to our surprise. We couldn't land because of the harsh weather, so we were being flown back to Barcelona.

Because there was no other option, we decided to get in a car and drive for 6 hours. We were supposed to land at 9am, we arrived at 6pm. We decided to shorten the meetings and do just one on the first day and a full day on the second day.

Now, what happened there isn't relevant. The fact that we wanted to do it, even when they told us to stay home and reschedule is proof enough that we go the extra mile. I don't know if that awarded us extra credit and a few more years of contract or whether we already have got all the credit we need, but they will remember that.

Become their best client

Back in 2016, I met Pontus Österberg at one of our events, one of the founders of a product agency from Sweden called Prototyp. They needed help with a Ruby on Rails project and he wanted to hire us. The conversation went like this:

-  Hey, I've got a project for you guys. Been checking your website and I like your style. What's your hourly rate?

-  60 euro per hour

-  Fine. I'll pay you 65.

-  Why?

-  I want to be your best client.

Just like that, we agreed to work together. We worked together for five years.

With that simple gesture, he became our best client. Then, he had other great gestures like never pushing the team, always being upfront about timings, being kind during negotiations and letting us know well in advance when we had to pause the project or end it altogether.

I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel - Maya Angelou

I have never forgotten Pontus' gesture and how it made me feel, and I'm sure my contractors appreciate it when I reply to their quotes with stuff like "add an extra 30% to that and send the invoice".

That definitely resonated with me because I had always been doing this but took it for granted. I had wrongly assumed this is what everyone else does, too.

How do we show appreciation for a job extra well done?

In a restaurant, we tip. As a business owner, this is how you do it.

When some freelancer wanted to work for exposure at Startup Grind, I decided to pay them on top of it. When I felt a contractor was too cheap for what they delivered, I decided to pay them more. I always compensate my delays as a client with an extra bonus for them. I tell my providers and partners to raise prices every year (even when I don't manage to do it myself - but that's another story).

On top of that, I refer clients to my providers because I want to be their best ally. Turns out, in doing so they reciprocate going in the extra mile for you.

Even if they didn't, but they only gave me the right service, I'd be fine. I value stability and long-term relationships. Those few extra bucks are well worth it: they allow me to do a better job and charge my clients more money for it.

It's funny how everyone is trying to lower everyone else's prices, get discounts and barter every single contract, when it's so much easier to do it the other way around.

Peace of mind has never been so cheap.

Recommended content

• 🎙️ Really loving Divot. Derek Andersen (CEO @ Bevy & Startup Grind) launched his new podcast interviewing the all-time greats. The first episode with Doug Leone was a declaration of intentions, but the second one, with Justin Kan is also delightful.
• ✨ LLMs are just fancy autocompletes.
• 📹 Elon Musk is a scam.
• 💸 Telefonica sacks the hacker with the wool caps.
• 📰 The Life and Mystery of Luigi Mangione.

My projects

• 🖊️ We've signed a new project: Dreaming Languages, the company of an ex-MarsBased who decided to become an entrepreneur. Almost seven years later, we're working together again.
• 🎙️ Foc a Terra: Our take on Mobile World Congress (in Catalan).
• 🎙️ Life on Mars: Interviews with Szymon Boniecki (CEO of Monterail) and Simone van Neerven (ex-Head of Innovation of Vueling).

Gratitude & asks

• Jordi Miró for being one of the best clients we've had. He trusted us from the get go "and if you fuck up, we will break the contract". We never did.
• Laura Gascón for hiring us for our first mobile project even though we didn't do mobile. She wanted us to do it anyways. It went very well.
• Sergio Gago for hiring us, directly or indirectly, for five different companies. We need more Sergios on earth.
• Adarsh Pandit, for being one of the first people to reply our outbound emails when we started when we absolutely had nothing to offer to him. We met, became friends, then worked together for many years, because he became our evangelist in the US.
• Brad Mills, one of our best clients in the US (seven years now!), he told me we were too cheap on our first meeting. I will never forget that.
• Pontus Österberg for the reasons mentioned above and for being altogether a fantastic person.
• All the people at Naiz, especially Juanpe and Joxe, for the continued trust and being some of the best friends we have in the industry. To ten more years together.